Saturday, August 31, 2013

Voice of Shankara : His Holiness the Sage of Kanchi

What would be the relationship between Jivatma and
Paramatma? This is an important question raised and answered by each of the
schools in its own distinct way. One school says that the Jivatma will always
be distinct from the Paramatma; and in that state of moksha, the Jivatma would
enjoy infinite bliss by worshipping the Paramatma with Bhakti – that is the
Dvaita conclusion. Another says: Even though the Jivatma will be a separate soul
doing Bhakti towards Paramatma, it will have the feeling of the Paramatma
immanent in it as its soul; this is Vishishtadvaita. Still another says: When
the Sun rises the stars do not lose their existence; they just disappear from
view, because of the luminosity of the Sun; so also in moksha, the Jivatma,
though it does not lose its existence, will have its own little consciousness
submerged in the Absolute Consciousness of the Paramatma – this is the doctrine
of Shaiva-siddhanta. There are still other schools of thought.

ADVAITA is different from all these.

The school of philosophy propagated by Adi Shankara
Bhagavat-pada is called Advaita. It says something totally different from all
the above. It discards all that talk about the Jivatma escaping from this
world, from this samsara, about the Jivatma going and joining with the
Paramatma and all the consequent underlying assumptions about this world and
the so-called world of moksha and the relationship between the two. There is no
such thing as 'this world'; it is only mAya. Moksha is not a place or a world.
When the Atma is released from the bondage of the mind, that is moksha. It may
be right here and now. One can be 'released' even when alive, not necessarily
only after death. He whom we call a jnAni may appear to be living in 'this
world' but in reality he is in Moksha. There is no such thing as the union of
Jivatma and Paramatma. A union occurs only when there is more than one. Only
when there are two any question of relationship between the two arises. In
truth the Jivatma and Paramatma are not two distinct entities. Atma is one and
one only. It is itself by itself; other than itself there is nothing. The Self
being the Self as such is what it is. That is called by the name
'nirguna-brahman'. However, with that

Brahman as the support and at the same time hiding that very
support, there appears a mayic show, as if it is a magic show, in the form of
this universe. The movie appears on the support of the white screen. There is
no show without the screen. Still that very show hides the screen itself which
is its support. The screen has in no way been affected; it is still the screen
and it remains as the screen. In the case of Brahman there is an additional mystery.
On one side Brahman remains as Brahman; but on the other hand, by its own mAyA
shakti, it has become several individual Jivas each with a distinct inner organ
(antaH-karanam). By a proper Sadhana if we can dispose of this antaH-karana,
the Jiva itself turns out to be Brahman. In other words there is no 'union' of
two things called Jivatma and Paramatma. The one knows himself as the other. The
same entity that does not know its own real nature thinks of itself as a Jiva,
and knows of itself as Brahman when the real nature is known. There are no two
entities. It is Brahman that has the name Jiva when there is the bondage with
the mind and when the bondage is thrown off, it remains by itself as itself;
thus no one gets united

with some one. There is no question of relationship here.

Where is the question of 'relation' of ourselves with ourselves?
It is the release from this bondage that is called moksha; so there is no place
for calling it a

different 'world' or 'place' of moksha. This is the

bottomline of advaita. One may wonder: 'Dispose off the mind
– we are ourselves

Brahman. That is moksha'. This statement of advaita seems to
make it all easy for us. All along, the other schools are saying that there is
something higher than us, above

our world, that is called a world of moksha; there is a Paramatma
above us, we are only Jivatma, far below Him and we have to strive to reach His
world. But advaita says there is no high, no low; we are ourselves that
Paramatma and in order to reach this moksha we don't have to 'go' anywhere;
right here we can have that. One may think that this should then be very easy.

APPEARS TO BE EASY – BUT REALLY, DIFFICULT

Because that is a big 'if'! 'If only, we can dispose off the
mind, ..', then there is the advaita-siddhi. The difficulty is exactly there –
to dispose off the mind. When our shirt loosely fits us we can take it off
easily. But if the shirt is tight, the taking off might have to be made with
some effort. And when we are required to take off our very outer skin, imagine
how difficult it could be. Just as the skin is sticking to our body, our mind
is sticking to us, but in deeper proximity! A dirty stinking sticky

cloth becomes pure when the dirt, stink and stickiness are
off the cloth. It is not necessary to look for another cloth. The same cloth,
when the dirt, etc. are off, becomes the pure cloth. So also for our Jiva we
don't have to look for a new entity called Brahman; if we can remove the present
dirt and stink of the mind, that should be enough. The same person will emerge
as the pure Brahman. But that

is exactly the formidable task – to remove the dirt and stink
that is so deeply adhering to mind! Mind refuses to be disposed off. What
exactly is this mind?

It is the instrument which creates thoughts. If the creation
of thoughts stops, mind will also not be there. But we are not able to stop the
creation of thoughts. All the time it is galloping to go somewhere. We go
through lots of experiences and enjoyments. We also keep seeing them; those of
this birth that we know, and many more in the other births that we do not know.
Each of them has left an impression in our mind. They keep running in our mind and
sprout numberless thoughts. It is like the smell that persists in the bottle in
which we kept spicy asafoetida. So also even after we have gone through
experiences and enjoyments, their smell persists in our mind. This is what is
called Vasana, or JanmAntara VAsanA (Vasana that comes from other births), or
SamskAra VAsanA. What does it do? It keeps surfacing thoughts about that
enjoyment and becomes the cause for further thoughts about how to have that experience
again. These thoughts are the plans which themind makes. This 'smell' of the
past has to subside. That is what is called 'VAsanA-kshhayam' (Death of the
VAsanA). And that is the 'disposal of the mind'! 'Disposal' implies the 'end'. What keeps running all the time
has an end when it stops running. When a large flow of water is dammed, the
flow stops. In the same way when the flow of the mind is stopped, it means that
is the end of the mind. When I say mind is stilled or stopped I do not
mean the staying or resting of the mind on one object. That is something different. Here when I say the mind is stopped or stilled, I mean something else. When the mind stays on some

one object, it means the mind is fully occupied with that object. No other object can have then a place in the mind.

Even to keep the mind still like that is certainly a difficult process. This is actually the penultimate step to 'dispose off' the mind. When a wild animal is jumping and running all around, how do you shoot it? It is difficult. But when it is made to stay at one place, we can easily shoot it. Similarly the mind that is running in all directions should be made to stay at one place in one thought. It does not mean the mind has disappeared then. No, the mind is still there. Only instead of dwelling on various things it is now full of one and only one thought. This is the prerequisite to what I call the 'disposal' of the mind. After this the mind has to be vanquished totally. That is when Realisation takes place -- Realisation of the Atman. In other words the being as a Jiva goes and the

being as Brahman sprouts. This process of stopping the mind at one single thought and then vanquishing even that thought in order to dispose off the mind along with its roots is a Himalayan achievement. Our scriptures very often refer to “anAdyavidyA-vAsanayA”, meaning “because of vasanas of ignorance going back to beginningless antiquity”. This is the reason for the dirt of the mind being so thick and dense. Removal of that dirt is no doubt a most difficult job. However, if we persist
with our efforts, by the Grace of

God, if not in this life, maybe in a later life, that noble goal of Brahman-realisation, that is, the realisation that we ourselves are Brahman and being–in-Brahman happens.